For award-winning science writer Margie Pitlak, exploring the unique nature of the Maine coast opens a door to deeper ties and insights. Watching a striped monarch caterpillar transform into a chartreuse pendant dabbed with gold, she realizes the limits of life and what passes between generations. She explores the violent geologic collisions that thrust up and fractured Maine’s mountains; digs into the latest scientific thinking on how animals navigate; reflects on the dizzy dance of plankton under the microscope and the dogfish heart that continued to beat while held in the palm of her hand. She looks at moose, fox, fishers, and the tides as well, and shares a chapter about cleaning up the Maine coast by kayak. These facets of the natural world speak a hidden language that is translated by scientific knowledge and reflection. Nature begins to speak about the nature of life.